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How Electric Cars Could Make America's Crumbling Roads Even Worse

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @02:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the exceedingly-crumbly dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

To fix the potholes and crumbling roads, federal, state and local governments rely on fuel taxes, which raise more than US$80 billion a year and pay for around three-quarters of what the U.S. spends on building new roads and maintaining them.

I recently purchased an electric car, the Tesla Model 3. While swerving down a particularly rutted highway in New York, the economist in me began to wonder, what will happen to the roads as fewer and fewer cars run on gasoline? Who will pay to fix the streets?

Will toll roads become universal to bridge the funding gap?

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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:31PM (3 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:31PM (#806964) Journal

    With GPS, it's a simple matter to keep track of how many miles you travel in each state. Just have the computer spit it out each month, or each quarter, or whatever.

    Would owners of cars manufactured before the transition be required to buy a tamper-evident GPS unit specifically for this purpose? To what extent would law enforcement be able to subpoena records from this unit in order to put a person of interest at the scene of a crime?

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:03PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:03PM (#807046) Journal

    I thought we were only considering electric vehicles, which don't pay a tax at the gas pump. No need to install this stuff on a gas guzzler, is there? And, I'm pretty sure that all the electrics out there have the capability to do this. All that is required is an update from Musky Man, or whoever sold the vehicle.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:59AM (1 child)

      by Pino P (4721) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:59AM (#807462) Journal

      I'm pretty sure that all the electrics out there have the capability to [count electric miles in each U.S. state]. All that is required is an update from [the auto maker]

      I'm not so sure that an update would be practical for extended-range electric vehicles (also called plug-in hybrids), such as Toyota Prius and Holden/Chevy Volt, or early all-battery EVs that predate wide Tesla availability, such as Nissan Leaf.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:34PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:34PM (#807641) Journal

        Fair enough - maybe they can't all be updated. But, the feds can certainly mandate that all new cars have that ability.